Beverly McClellan
'Beverly McClellan '(41 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida) is an American singer and former contestant on the first season of the American version of The Voice reaching the final 4. She was coached by Christina Aguilera and was part of her team. She finished in 3rd/4th place in the competition. Prior to applying to The Voice, she had already recorded 5 independant albums without having been signed by any record label. At the age of 4, McClellan started playing the piano and currently can play piano, guitar, trumpet, french horn, mandolin, ukelele, bass guitar, djembe and a wide variety of drums and percussions. She started singing at age 24 and had been performing at clubs in bars around Fort Lauderdale, Florida for 20 years. She had won the New York National Music Festival in 2004 as Best Overall Performer amongst 500 contestants. Personal Life Beverly McClellan studied at South Fork High School and then at Indian River Community College in Fort Pierce, Florida. Her paternal grandmother was a Native American Indian (Mohawk). To honor her, McClellan carries many tattoos representing a variety of different aspects of her grandmother's heritage. She is an openly out lesbian artist. In June 2011, she appeared on the cover of SHE magazine, a South Florida lesbian magazine. She first played with Tammy Gorden in a duo band called "Uncommon Ground", later she formed her own band called "DJ's Daughter" named after her mother who was a great influence in her life. She recorded a few songs with that band, played many gigs for years before breaking once again out on her own. She then recorded another two albums on her own before joining up with "Swoop", another great band from Fort Lauderdale. Along the way she has competed in many singing contest, from taking "The Best in Show at the NYC International Music Festival", Best Voice at Eddies Attic, to most notably "The Voice". While she was in the recording studio her producer gave her an invite to try out for The Voice and she did, she made it and the rest was history. Beverly's had a few mentors along the way, Tammy Haney who has been at her side to support her career and her friend for over 10 years. Christine David (Artemis Design Group) who is her artist of record and friend for over 10 years and has won two National Addy Awards for the design of Beverly's CD's, and now Christina Aguilera, who was her coach on "The Voice". The Blind Auditions At the Blind Auditions, Beverly sang a song by Erma Franklin called "Piece of My Heart" and immediately caught the attention of both Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera. Having two coaches turn around meant that the decision was now in her hands to pick who she would like as a mentor and in conclusion she made the decision to be on Team Xtina. The Battle Rounds In the Battle Rounds, Beverly's coach and mentor Christina Aguilera paired her with fellow team member Justin Grennan to dual it out and for their song she chose "Baba O'Riley" by The Who. The duet was a powerful song and when it came down to choosing who would continue in the competition and who would be going home Christina made the decision to have Beverly as the winner of that battle, and so she went on to the live shows. The Live Shows For the first part of Live Shows Beverly was to sing against her fellow team mates, seperately this time, to try and get the viewers votes as the decision for the competition was now in the public's hands. She sang "I'm the Only One" by Melissa Etheridge and also in the show, Team Xtina all performed together, with their coach, to sing "Lady Marmalade", a song which their own coach sang. In this phase of the series, two members of each team are allowed to go through while the other two must go home, this choice was half the public's and half that teams coach as they each got to pick one of the contestants. For the viewer's choice, Beverly was voted through and took to the next live shows whilst her mentor Christina Aguilera chose Frenchie Davis to go through. In the next part of the competition, only one person from each team would be advanced to the final and so now the two from each team were competing against each other to get their mentor's vote. Beverly sang "The Thrill is Gone" by B.B.King. After performing, the votes were counted from the public and Beverly had been given 57 out of 100 from the public and then 50 out of 100 from her coach Christina Aguilera who gave both her and Frenchie an equal score. Beverly managed to beat Frenchie through the public by just 14 points and went on to the final. At the finals, each contestant were given the chance to sing a duet with their mentors. Beverly was lucky enough to be singing a song with Christina Aguilera that was very special to her as it was her own song, "Beautiful". The duet was considered to be the best duet of the night and went on to position in the charts. Beverly then sang her own original song that she had made with help from a record producer which was called "Lovesick". For the final results show, before finding out who would be the very first winner of The Voice, each contestant got to perform and sing a duet with a famous artist and Beverly sang "Good Life" with its singer and band member of OneRepublic Ryan Tedder. At the end result, the winner of the competition was announced to be Javier Colon, closely followed up as the runner up Dia Frampton, leaving Beverly in third place and fourth place to Vicci Martinez. Performances Discography Category:Season 1 Category:Contestants Category:Team Xtina